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As an old white Christian man, I have had the misfortune of being in the company of those I would refer to as Christian nationalists.
I believe they are mostly influenced by racism , fear , and by extension tribalism.
A recipe for disaster.
Many, maybe most, Christians, are not Christian nationalists.
However, Christian fundamentalism and Christian nationalism are in the driver's seat in terms of cultural power and discussion. Christian nationalism is what Christianity is today in the public eye.
Many, maybe most, Christians, are not Christian nationalists.
However, Christian fundamentalism and Christian nationalism are in the driver's seat in terms of cultural power and discussion. Christian nationalism is what Christianity is today in the public eye.
I hope your wrong. But if not, hopefully this aberration will be short lived.
I pray they are merely the loudest voices in the current cacophony.
Many, maybe most, Christians, are not Christian nationalists.
However, Christian fundamentalism and Christian nationalism are in the driver's seat in terms of cultural power and discussion. Christian nationalism is what Christianity is today in the public eye.
I didn't see Oakback say that most christians are christian nationalists. I do tend to agree with your second paragraph.
I hope your wrong. But if not, hopefully this aberration will be short lived.
I pray they are merely the loudest voices in the current cacophony.
I may be wrong, but...
I grew up in fire and brimstone Baptist churches in Appalachia. I felt, by ten years old or so, that most of the religious stories I grew up with were hokey at best. None of them actually seemed to illuminate the world as it actually was. Few offered any real guidance to current world problems and situations. None of them seemed to apply to my life as it was - you'd had to certainly stretch to apply Biblical logic to day-to-day life.
While pretty much everyone was Republican, and there were certainly pro-life leanings, the church was certainly not as expressly political as it is today.
This was my frame of reference. Today's fundamentalism is my childhood theology taken to its logical ends politically. In some ways, the theology itself is even more radical than what I grew up with.
Any sort of moderate Christian domination has lots adherents, probably even moreso than Christianity overall. The wild denominations are the only ones actually growing.
I'm just shocked that, twenty some years on, with all the advancements in technology and our increased understanding of the world, that people still believe in religious fundamentalism. I never thought it would have this amount of political and cultural power.
To me, the most extreme Christianity is the true Christianity.
I'm just shocked that, twenty some years on, with all the advancements in technology and our increased understanding of the world, that people still believe in religious fundamentalism. I never thought it would have this amount of political and cultural power.
To me, the most extreme Christianity is the true Christianity.
Their political and cultural power are all out of proportion to their actual numbers. It's my view that they have become moral degenerates and have embraced various wedge issues with zero integrity and it is their divisiveness and their assaults on principled leadership, and their willingness to engage in that without the slightest pang of conscience nor concern for actual facts or data, that has been extremely instrumental in producing the polarization and hatred we live with now in this country.
Their political and cultural power are all out of proportion to their actual numbers. It's my view that they have become moral degenerates and have embraced various wedge issues with zero integrity and it is their divisiveness and their assaults on principled leadership, and their willingness to engage in that without the slightest pang of conscience nor concern for actual facts or data, that has been extremely instrumental in producing the polarization and hatred we live with now in this country.
I generally find your posts thoughtful and cogent. But polarization does not occur without two poles with extreme attraction! Stigmatizing one pole as if it is the reason for the polarization is not persuasive. Neither pole is "principled" and the other is not. They are both extreme or no polarization would occur.
I generally find your posts thoughtful and cogent. But polarization does not occur without two poles with extreme attraction! Stigmatizing one pole as if it is the reason for the polarization is not persuasive. Neither pole is "principled" and the other is not. They are both extreme or no polarization would occur.
They stigmatize themselves.
It is of course hard to determine how much they are just useful fools for the real manipulators, but I am not going there because it's a forbidden topic. We would have to discuss politics and adjacent dynamics and how Christian fundamentalism participates in them to really debate that.
It is of course hard to determine how much they are just useful fools for the real manipulators, but I am not going there because it's a forbidden topic. We would have to discuss politics and adjacent dynamics and how Christian fundamentalism participates in them to really debate that.
I will just assume you do not think the other pole is extreme, then. Sad.
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